Volunteers at Samaritan's Purse in Charlotte

While this may not be quite like the landscape images you've come to expect here, there's a deep beauty to this image you may miss if you don't look carefully... allow me to explain. Some of the more enjoyable times of my life have often been those moments of salt and light that have taken me off the beaten path. This weekend spent working at Samaritan's Purse for Operation Christmas Child in Charlotte, North Carolina has been one of those times. Each year, folks in churches throughout the United States gather shoeboxes and fill them with school supplies, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toys, coloring books, and candy to bring joy to kids who have no hope in poor and war-torn countries... just to let them know somebody loves them. Those shoeboxes are shipped to one of 8 distribution centers to be sorted, checked for inappropriate material, taped, prayed over, and packed according to age and gender in cartons to be shipped around the world. Volunteers from all over the world converge on these centers to provide the time and labor it takes to get the job done. The boxes we helped to ship this weekend were to be sent to the countries of Ukraine, Georgia, Mali, and Zimbabwe.

This shot shows only one corner of that warehouse... the place is huge. The Charlotte warehouse usually ships about 20 sea containers daily (shipping by boat is the most cost effective way to ship overseas) until over 2 million shoeboxes have all been sent. There were only 3 from my church on this day, with more to arrive the next day. As you can see, there were a lot of friends to be made. The enthusiastic young lady with the red vest was our supervisor that day, there to make certain that everyone understood and properly handled their role. Though having lived in North Carolina for 13 years, she had lost neither her Brooklyn accent nor New York enthusiasm... from my perspective, at barely over 4-feet tall, she needed every advantage. She was a sweetheart to work with!

In deference to Joyce, (nightingale's song), I roomed with the pastor on Friday evening there in Charlotte, so we had a chance to talk through quite a few things. One of those things was of how he managed to get us scheduled to work at the warehouse. The phones for volunteer arrangement open at exactly 8 am EST on August 5th, and not a second before. He hit "dial" at 7:59:59 that morning, connected perhaps 1 second after 8 am, and was greeted with this message, "Thank you for calling Operation Christmas Child. Your call is important to us. You are number... 300 in line. Please hold." He said it was the quickest he was ever able to get through to schedule us... less than 45 minutes. It makes me realize that, despite all the problems of this world, there is still hope in the faithful of God to do what He asks of us... the Great Commission.

www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/occ

And for the UK: www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk/

Taken in: United States / North Carolina / Charlotte (show map)

Taken on: December 9, 2011

Tags:

Operation Christmas Child

Samaritan's Purse

Charlotte, North Carolina

Shoeboxes

Joy

OCC « less

Groups appears in: • Because You Love North Carolina

Camera: Canon EOS 7D, f/8.0, 1/60 sec, 17mm, ISO 3200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 7D
Lens:	EF17-35mm f/2.8L USM
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	17mm
ISO:	3200
Exposure Bias:	-1/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Windows
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